When we here
refer to consonants, we mean sounds (phonemes). We do not refer to letters
of the alphabet (graphemes).

The realization of consonants
generally corresponds to places at which the articulators come close together
and obstruct the vocal tract. These points of articulation normally can
be clearly pointed out and can easily identify the distinctive features
of the sounds produced. Unlike vowels, which are continuous and stepless
sounds that are similar but hardly ever match perfectly across languages,
consonants usually match closely enough to permit easy transference or,
in some cases, do not match at all.

A)
The aspiration of the
English voiceless stops /p/,
/t/ and
/k/,
when occurring word-initially or at the beginning of stressed syllables,
has no equivalent in Portuguese. The transference of the Portuguese unaspirated
stops will result primarily in a clear foreign accent (phonetic error),
with the possibility of misunderstanding (phonological error), since they
could be perceived as /b/,
/d/ and
/g/ by
English native speakers. For example: the word pig[phIg]
if pronounced as [pIg],
without aspiration, could be perceived as big[bIg].

B)
The English alveolar stops /t/and
/d/correspond
in Portuguese to apicodental stops. That is, the point of articulation
in Portuguese is slightly more forward. But this difference has no significant
ill effects. Learners of ESL and PSL will experience difficulty however
when /t/and
/d/occur
before /iy/or
/I/,
with possibility of phonological error. There are no /ti/or /di/sounds in Portuguese (except
in some dialects of the northeast, Santa Catarina and some border areas
of Rio Grande do Sul), as alveolar stops are automatically palatalized
in the presence of a high front vowel. Whenever /t/or /d/occur before /i/,
they become respectively /tshi/and
/dzhi/,
as in words like leite['leytshi] and
pode['pódzhi].
This Portuguese phenomenon, if transferred to English, will neutralize the contrast between words
like:

C) All the stops,/p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/and /g/,
the affricates /tsh/and
/dzh/,
and the fricatives /f/,
/v/,
/Ø/,
/ð/,
/sh/and
/zh/,
occur in word-final position in English, while in Portuguese the corresponding
phonemes never do. As a result, ESL students
will tend to add a vowel sound to these word-final consonants so that
words like back[bæk]
and knife[nayf]
might be pronounced ['bæki]
and ['nayfi],
adding a syllable to the word and producing an obvious phonetic error.
Secondly, if the word-final consonant is a /t/or a /d/,
the likely outcome will be, for instance, [khætsh]
instead of [khæt]
for cat, or [hætsh]
instead of [hæt]
for hat, thus neutralizing
the contrast and giving way to phonological error in words like:

D) The interdental
fricatives /Ø/and /ð/have no close counterparts
in Portuguese and learners will need articulatory orientation and exercise
in order to achieve an acceptable level of production. Commonly, students
resort to the clusters /ts/or /dz/as substitutes, which
neutralize the contrast between words like:

Other students might use
/s/and
/z/as
substitutes, which is still less desirable because /s/and /z/have a heavy functional
load and this substitution could result in the neutralization of minimal
pairs like:

E) The fricatives
/s/and
/z/in
English carry functional load when occurring in word-final position. In
Portuguese however /s/and /z/are not contrastive
in final position, the occurrence of either being conditioned by the environment.
Therefore students will have difficulty which can lead to phonological
error in minimal pairs like:

F) Like the interdentals
(item D), the English retroflex /r/does not have a similar
sound in Portuguese, except in one dialect in certain areas of the state
of São Paulo. Therefore most Brazilian students will need articulatory
exercises (see picture below). Because of spelling interference, the English
retroflex /r/in
word-initial position is easily misinterpreted as the the Portuguese velar
fricative /x/(both
are represented by the same grapheme). On the other hand, the English glottal
fricative /h/is
close and similar to the Portuguese velar fricative /x/.
Therefore students will easily be confused and neutralize the contrast
in minimal pairs like:

Until acceptable production
of the English retroflex /r/is
attained, Portuguese native speakers could substitute it with the Portuguese
flap /Ð/,
depending on the environment it occurs. This would produce an obvious foreign
accent and the possibility of phonological error:

G)
The alveolar fricative phoneme /s/ before /m/,
/n/or
/l/in
English occurs predominantly in word-initial position, and then it is always
voiceless - [s].
In Portuguese, however, it only occurs in middle position and is always
voiced - [z].
Students will therefore persist in articulating words like smoke[smowk],
snake[sneyk] and
sleep[sliyp] as
[zmowk],
[zneyk] and
[zliyp],
producing an obvious foreign accent but no phonological error.

H)
Another area that can be identified as a potential problem for Brazilian
ESL students refers to consonantal clusters. In contrast with Portuguese,
with its rich vocality and nasality and large number of diphthongs and
even triphthongs, English has a strong consonantal character. In Portuguese,
the only consonants that occur in word-final position are the phonemes
/Ð/,
/l/and
/s/;
consonantal clusters, except for a few foreign words, do not occur at all.
Therefore, particularly difficult will be the clusters occurring in word-final
position, with an even higher degree of difficulty being experienced by
students in the realization of English consonantal clusters which include
the interdentals /Ø/or /ð/,
as in the following examples: